Broad Channel Bits

By Liz Guarino

Memorial Weekend seemed to be fairly quiet, with nice blue skies and plenty of sunshine. Some residents used the long weekend to relax at home and take it a bit easy before the stressful workweek began again. Others used the time to take a mini-vacation out of the area. Still others found the temperatures perfect for working on their homes as the dull sounds of hammering and the rapid pfftt of a nail gun rose in the air last weekend.

P.S. 47 PTA will be hosting a Chinese Auction on Friday, June 3 at 7 p.m. at the American Legion Hall. To reserve tickets contact Michelle 718-634-5799 or Karen 718-945-9041. Seats are limited.

On Monday, June 13 at 1:30 p.m. there will be an Irish Music program with Ed Deacy in the Library. Pre-registration is not necessary. Just show up and enjoy!

At the Civic Association meeting last week, the 100 Precinct said if you received a ticket this week for parking on the mall to write NOT GUILTY on the ticket and in remarks state that it was high tide. It is further suggested that you make a copy of the ticket and send it to Councilman Joe Addabbo’s office marked to the attention of Sandy. (Don’t forget to keep a copy of the marked ticket for your records.)

Parents of school-age children will be pleased to learn the following news: The director of community development of the Twelve Towns YMCA provided the information that the organization is offering a Day Camp at St.Virgilius this summer. The camp will run from Tuesday, July 5 through Friday, August 26. There is a choice of hours: choose either 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. or the extended hours which are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The fee for regular hours is only $99 per week. Financial assistance is offered for those who apply and qualify. The camp will consist of arts and crafts, sports, music, outdoor play, community walks, swimming, trips and special events. For more information call John Larkin at the Twelve Towns YMCA at 718-277-1600.

The P.S. 47 book discussion group will examine the fiction work “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd. (This author was a magazine writer at one time.) The discussion will take place on Monday, June 20 at 6:30 p.m. in the school. Everyone is invited who wants to discuss the book.

Books and Bagels, the library book discussion group, will be examining Julie and Romeo by Jeanne Ray at the next meeting on Tuesday, June 14 at 10 a.m. The July meeting is set for Tuesday, July 12 when the group will discuss The Diary of Anne Frank.

Brownie Troop #4747 will be spending the night at the Long Island Chidren’s Museum on June 17. The Museum has organized a sleepover for Brownies and Junior Scouts. Girl Scouts from all over will have the Museum to themselves for exploration; they will participate in special programming, and sleep in their favorite exhibits.

Adults are reminded that summer is a good time for accumulating those proofs of purchase that can help both of our schools. At least one resident hangs an open envelope on the family’s refrigerator door to collect box tops and labels. Empty printer cartridges should be put in a small plastic bag—and delivered in September—those, too, help both schools.

Products on which you can find the special box tops number in the hundreds and include: the many General Mills cereals (which are all made with whole grains now) and snack-type products; Bisquick; Bugles; Lloyd’s bowl meals; Totinos Pizza Rolls; tubes of refrigerated dough products like Grands; Hamburger Helper; Old El Paso products; Betty Crocker baking products; Gold Medal flour; Yoplait yogurt products and Nature Valley granola bars to name a few! Each school can earn as much as $20,000 from each of three program components; we are all given the opportunity to participate in helping the schools.

News from P.S. 47: the Dance Festival will be held on Wednesday, June 15, at 9:15 a.m. in the schoolyard in back of the school.

Some of the seniors attend other senior programs that offer lunch and a schedule of various activities on an everyday basis. One such group located in the temple at Beach 121 Street and Rockaway Beach Blvd, JASA Rockaway Park, can boast of funding from the NYC Department of the Aging. Intermittent reports have this program in danger of discontinuance, however. Call the director, Nancy Fine, before you make the trip there to make sure everything is still in place at 718 634-3044.

This year, the scheduled Horseshoe Crab Walk was a bit disappointing to attendees who hoped to see a lot of the ancient creatures crawling over the shore by the North Channel Bridge. The weather has been a bit cool, so the crabs have been a little slow in their egg laying chore. If you want to see them, wait for the next high tide that coincides with a full moon—roughly a week into the future—and there should be plenty of them. Some folks are afraid of them because they think the animals sting— they don’t. The blood of the horseshoe crabs, which is blue because it’s copper based, is being used without harming the animal. They are caught once a year, some blood is drawn and they are released again. Who would think such a prehistoric-looking creature could be of positive use to human beings?

I found this little gem of an Irish proverb. It says a lot in very few words: “Dance as if no one were watching, sing as if no one were listening and live each day as if it were your last.”